Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports – Page 8

Session 4 of our prequel Ghost Lines campaign.

Session 4 of our prequel Ghost Lines campaign. You know, this system is working very nicely for this length of campaign; we’re four sessions in, we plan to do just a couple more, and three of the bulls just became Journeymen and they have a range of retirement stash from 20 to 70 – it feels like a good spread.

Highlights included…

– The team accompanied a Spirit Warden on a trip to a strange castle belonging to a pallid scientist in the deathlands, where they dropped off food/water/fuel in exchange for plans to a new kind of leviathan blood refinery. We did a fun Paint the Scene (per Jason Cordova) to illustrate the weird and disturbing side-effects of this process.

– One of the linebulls stole a prototype hull (this is a prequel), a small robot monkey.

– Phin lost control while he was the anchor and ripped his own badge name off during a fight, which let the ghost of an old friend find him shortly after (via his real name). Overcome with the guilt he had joined the linebulls to escape, Phin let his old friend possess him – so he’s now playing the ghost possessing his old character. Fun times.

– In the continuing B-plot of the lamplighter union, Haig sold the electrobulb patent papers he had stolen to the Unseen for their offer of more money, effectively dooming the lamplighter union’s future prosperity.

– Slain became the face of a patriotic linebull recruitment drive, a sort of Obey Giant thing (he looks like Andre the Giant).

So the end-game will be the Unity War and seeing which side the linebulls fall in behind, since they have a range of loyalties from pro-Skov to pro-Imperium. And then maybe one will become a vampire??

Scum and Villainy Actual Play

Hey everyone,

Our playgroup started playing S&V recently and absolutely love it. So much so that I’ve taken the time to actually start publishing our sessions.

Our inaugural post is available at the following places:

https://www.2d6.io/

http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/6660690

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/2d6-io/id1393397883

http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/6660690

Starting Season Two of our game tonight, so I’ve done another one of these to fill in some gaps and provide some…

Starting Season Two of our game tonight, so I’ve done another one of these to fill in some gaps and provide some hooks!

I’ve also gone way overboard in preparing, so if anyone wants to get a bit more context or swipe a load of detail for their own games, check out https://bladesinthedark-11.obsidianportal.com/

A NOCTURNE v0.8 — playtest session #5

A NOCTURNE v0.8 — playtest session #5

With a sudden and haunting grasp on the endless digital war waged inside Heaven’s vast servers of uploaded personalities, Nix and Bug patch through to Ghost’s comms for a little chit-chat about what exactly went down here over a century ago.

Unfortunately, despite their established relationship, Nix is unable to get much out of the recalcitrant, glitching AI. What he does learn is sort of a bombshell in itself – the Ghost AI is actually a spliced-off fork of whoever the Patriarch is, and the reason Ghost did what he did (revoked the Pale Crew’s command access) is that they went against the parameters of a very important job the Patriarch gave them. Still skipping around the specifics, Ghost says something about retrieving a “personality matrix” from the doomed station, and expresses a desire for Heaven to return to its original state.

The crew want to learn more. Nix organises a clandestine meeting with Ion Brezhnev, one of the high ranking members of the Pale Crew, whom the crew left last score on good terms with. They meet in one of the now-cold exhaust tubes of the craft, a massive pipe a mile across curving away into haze and thrumming darkness. They converse upside down, magnetised boots gripping to the slick surface, their heads hanging over the miniature cloud systems formed in the tube’s damp air.

Ion, and his second in command Freya (a bald, rather abrasive woman), lay out what happened on Heaven. Their leader, then and now, a man named Newton, always had a flair for experiments. He liked to give populations the little push they needed to do something off-the-wall, then sit back and watch the fireworks. Ion notes that he’s a psychopath, but qualifies that with a shrugging gesture – to Ion, being a psychopath doesn’t seem that strange. Correctly deducing that Newton must have stolen the personality matrix from Heaven after setting his little experiment going, Nix convinces Ion to arrange a meeting for them with Newton. Ion agrees, but not without some trepidation.

So, we hit on the next score: a nice, cordial meeting with Newton. A social score. What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, everything. They roll an abysmal 1 on the engagement roll, starting them in a desperate position. Newton’s got some tricks up his sleeve, and some dangerous ambitions (plus a little old-school revenge mixed in). I run with it.

The Pale Crew’s hideout on the Ghost is the Keep, a fortified module deep in the bowels of the craft. I point to the module map as I describe it, bringing the players’ attention to the Empathy Scrubbers. As they enter the Keep, the crew’s path is flanked by row after row of what look on first glance to be metal thrones, but a closer look reveals their true purpose. An exposed mass of circuitry, some sort of interface plate, lies embedded in the back of each throne, at about the height of a person’s head. The crew notice that there are similar patches of scarification, burns, and welts on the back of each of the Pale Crew’s shaved heads. Whatever the Pale Crew’s setup is down here, part of it appears to be a regular dosing on the empathy scrubbers, ensuring that they lack compunctions about inflicting pain and suffering.

They’re lead into the main entrance-hall of the Keep, another orb-like space filled with more of the empathy scrubber thrones. There, after some of the Pale Crew have filtered out, Newton enters, his personal guard flanking him in the microgravity. At the same time, a turret unfurls itself above the crew’s heads and trains its scorched muzzle on them. Next to Newton, Ion gives Nix and Bug an apologetic shrug. It seems he was pressured into revealing exactly what the crew are interested in, and more importantly, where they’ve been.

Bug takes a moment survey Newton, trying to get a read on him, so he can hopefully bargain their way out of this situation. For help on the role, Roxanne chooses to activate the Vessel special ability, and gets her first chance to describe the AI lodged in Bug’s mind. His name’s Billy, and he’s a creepy-precocious child. The sacrifice Roxanne makes to get Billy’s help (in this case, she chooses a bonus die) is that Bug is going to surrender his will to Billy later on, and let the child-AI make an important decision for him. Naturally, I rub my hands with glee.

Unfortunately, Roxanne rolls a 3. The worst outcome. After some basic preamble and pleasantries (Newton is alarmingly pleasant), Bug attempting fruitlessly to assuage Newton’s clear intentions to bully them into submission, the old leader of the Pale Crew grows bored and orders his guards and the turret to open fire. Bug gets his read on him way too late – he wants to take out the current crew, pilfer the information they have on the current state of his experiment of Heaven from their neural backups, and then strike at the Ghost AI directly in order to get back the Pale Crew’s (read: his) prior control of the craft.

The turret open fires. Brendon and Roxanne quickly deploy their armour and some desperate-but-successful rolls, managing to play dead. A couple guards grab them and start carting them off through the cramped, microgravity interior of the Keep, to what Newton refers to the as the Extractor, a kind of black market memory reader with the unfortunate side-effect that it scrambles and corrupts whatever information it scans.

Luckily, Roxanne got Bug a present at the end of last session when Bug advanced – the special ability Vector, which allows him to implant a command in the mind of anyone he touches. Bug subliminally orders the guard pushing him through the microgravity to take him to a secluded spot. The guard holding Nix follows the other one, confused but unaware of the danger he’s in.

And then they get to the secluded spot, a little side-tunnel off one of the main throughfares, and Nix finally gets to deploy The Subtle Knife, killing one of the guards without leaving an obvious mark. The other guard proves a little trickier, and a tense zero-g fight ensues, the combatants tumbling over and over in the half-dark of the maintenance tunnel. They eventually get away, leaving the guard bleeding out quickly from a nasty stomach wound, his blood spilling out in droplets. They descend further into the keep, and I start a very short clock for Newton and his goons discovering the deception.

Stray thoughts: Not many this session, although we did get a chance to talk a little about the special abilities, since they saw so much use this session compared to previous sessions. We agreed that there was maybe a little rewording that need to happen, and a proper interrogation of the scope and nature of the abilities in question, as well as the exact details of their fictional positioning. That said, Brendon and Roxanne were quite positive.

From a GMing point of view, I’m having a lot of fun describing and portraying the Pale Crew. I see them very much as dark reflections of the PCs, examples of what they might become given a little nudge. Of course, I only realised I was doing this about halfway through describing the empathy scrubbers, but then I decided to just double down on it.

Next time: What was going to be a negotiation over information is now a straight-up theft mission, retrieving the personality matrix from Newton’s vault in order to return it to Ghost and…. then what? Will Newton follow through on his plan to retake the craft? What will Billy do? Will Heaven ever be the same again? And what about that tangled political situation on Remonstrance IV, when are getting to that again?

W/ MadJay Brown, Sean Nittner and Jason Bowell

https://githyankidiaspora.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/the-wobbegong-crew-the-dunvil-rover-job/

Four sessions in, we finally played our first game of Scum & Villainy.

We’d played before, of course, but not really. The first session was the getting-to-know-you version, with players A, B, and C. It was character creation, lots of rules explanations and examples, and trying to move away from the classic D&D, “I roll Stealth.” I used the starting scenario from the v1.7 handouts and plopped the players onto rails. I stuck a progress clock in there, but it was clunky. I managed to avoid any vivid descriptions and the players avoided roleplaying. I forgot about position and effect a few times (until after the dice were rolled).

The second session had players A, B, and D, and got better. I started off with a little exposition to customize my galaxy a bit, and put the gun on the mantlepiece. I used small gang rules and we hashed out the differences between Consort, Sway, and Command. I still had the rails down, but the NPCs were better (and present) and I found time to describe a few things. Player A roleplayed, and B used their playbook ability and Attune a couple of times. Played D, new to the system, took the first Trauma when Chekov’s gun finally went off in the last scene. I remembered to introduce factions and to use the characters’ friends.

Third session was Players A through E, and was rocky (from my point of view). I had issues keeping everyone involved and in the spotlight, and the challenges I presented kept getting knocked down by great rolls. On the plus side, I had a couple more, and better, NPCs, I tied the job to a couple of players’ backgrounds, and we did Downtime at the beginning of the session to keep things exciting until the end. In addition, I finally got the train off of the rails (for the most part) and kept factions involved.

Last night, though, finally felt like we weren’t playing a learning game. I had a player roll for Entanglements the night before so that I could think about how it might lead to a job; it worked really well, involving both a +2 faction and a friend of the ship. We had Players A, C, D, and E there, but the episodic nature of the game made it easy to leave the missing character out.

I made a (in my opinion) creative handout for a little more exposition, which was received well. I reminded the players about XP triggers at the beginning of the session, and the roleplaying was more frequent and better than before. Position and Effect were easier to come up with and skills were getting intuitive. We used Flashbacks, Gambits, varied Load, individual player equipment, Assists, Set-up Actions, and Devil’s Bargains. I split the action up so the players had to divide their attention, and it was easier to move the spotlight around.

Finally, the players took a lot more responsibility for the story, coming up with unexpected plans and involving their Trauma and fictional positioning even when it made things worse for them (three of four players overindulged their Vices, one for the expressed purpose of hitting Wanted Level 1, which everyone loved). Everything just flowed better and felt more fun, and there was so much roleplaying that we had to pack it in before the job was done.

The players are looking forward to finishing the job next time, and to see what’s next. For my part, I can’t wait to get the final draft of the S&V PDF.

Had a great session zero/first score on Twitch last week. If you missed the stream, you can check it out on YouTube!

Originally shared by Eli Kurtz

Score #01: A Night at the Races

Last week we started a new Blades in the Dark AP over at twitch.tv/ZapDynamic. Our next stream is on June 12, which in our opinion is just too long to wait (adult schedules, amiright?).

Lucky for you: you can watch the first session over on YouTube! The first hour or so goes through Scoundrel and Crew creation, then we jump into the action for the remainder of the episode. For the sake of the oppressed dockworkers, we head to the canals of Doskvol for a good old fashioned speedboat race. It’s all part of the plan.

Check it out and get stoked for June 12!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6kdFsoWAwE

Blades in the Dark – Session 9 – The Crimson Snow

Well things kicked off this week with the gang in a tough spot – outnumbered 3 to 4 within the Crows Nest, facing off against a well armed Lyssa and her cronies. Their foes dazed by a spark bomb tossed by Ves, Hadius seized the opportunity to attempt to get the upper hand on one of Lyssa’s henchmen, but he struggled, cursing his lacking physical training regime. In the ensuing melee, though both received their own injuries, Banks and Ves managed to subdue Lyssa’s henchmen, before Banks drove a trident through Lyssa’s shoulder. The gang then dispatched the injured and unconcious henchmen, an act that they reckoned would make known to other gangs their capability for ruthlessness.

Trident still buried in her shoulder, blade to her throat, the Snow lead Lyssa out of the tower. The other members of the Crows, pounding furiously on the door after being driven out, were intimidated into fleeing by a ghostly horror summoned by Ves as the gang led Lyssa to the location Roric’s ghost had requested she be brought to. Roric met them on arrival, thanked them for their assistence, and fixed his cold gaze on Lyssa. The members of the Snow decided they’d rather not stick around to find out what Roric had in store for his traitorous second, and they took their leave.

About a week later, the crew received an unexpected visitor at their lair. Roric, having seized control of Lyssa’s body, thanked the gang for their assistance in helping him regain control of the Crows and vengeance on his murderer, gifting a decent amount of coin and pledging the support of the Crows, when the Crimson Snow are ready to move against the Red Sashes. The Snow were not entirely sure they were comfortable with becoming allies of a gang led by a vampire, nevertheless, from being poised on the brink of war with the Crows, it was still a positive step they reckoned. The gang decided to take a bit of a break, get their wounds properly attended to, and that they might perhaps secure the assistance of a skilled chemist to aid in them in the manufacture of drugs. Schrodinger was perhaps an odd choice, though assured of his loyalty, and tenacious character, they figured his own drug dependence, as unreliable and wild as it sometimes made him, were drawbacks they were prepared to deal with, in exchange for his skill.

GM Notes – Well no one died this week! Though Hadius has now taken his 3rd trauma, leaving his player uncertain of whether transferring to a spirit playbook or frantically squirreling money away for his retirement is likely to be his preferred course of action going forward. This week showed me that Blades is a system that can struggle when it comes to pitched battles, largely for the same reasons it works so well at fast paced intrigue and sneakiness. It did the job, though the lack of structure frustrated one of my players. It’s really the first “proper” fight we’ve gotten into, so its possible I just haven’t figured out how best to “do” combat in Blades. But the plot developments this week were fun – the twist of having Roric’s ghost possess Lyssa’s body and become a vampire are sure to have some interesting follow on effects in the longterm – i’m curious how long their alliance with the Crows will last, as Roric is likely to be quite a different character now that he’s undead.

This week felt a lot like the big series finale, but i’m not sure that we’ll be taking a break yet – I think my players are still fairly focused on overthrowing the Red Sashes, and seizing control of the drug market in Crow’s Foot – so that’ll probably be the actual season finale, though having allied with the Crows has made it more of an achievable goal.

The third of our Ghost Lines prequel recap-newspapers.

The third of our Ghost Lines prequel recap-newspapers. The linebulls cut the wires on the train so that they could smuggle a man across the border into Skovlan – the exiled Lord Aldric and his daughter Alayne.

Highlights:

– Last session the team made a choice that led to their mentor falling off the train and dying. This time he came back as a ghost and lured one of the bulls into a deep forest inside the train where they had a tense conversation. The railjack opened the valve on his lightning oil canister and got away in a shower of electroplasm, but I’m sure that’s not the last we’ll see of the dead mentor.

– A demon showed up in the form of a titanic white owl to harass the train.

– The team briefly got on the wrong side of a spirit warden, and so they saw their first example of someone compelling/commanding a ghost.

– Booker visited a skov fishing village protected by runic standing stones, where an old woman helped him complete his ghost-tea recipe.

I’ve been reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which has been really helpful in adding more surrealism and the subtly-disturbing end of supernatural encounters (rather than just gonzo ghost-busting all the time).

Wrapped up a 6-session campaign at the FLGS on Thursday and finally got a chance to document it today.

This was my first time running Blades and I’ve officially fallen in love with this game. It seemed to take about four sessions for the meta-play to subside. There was a lot of worldbuilding info and system mastery to overcome, but by the time everyone cleared that hurdle the roleplay and the mechanics really started to sing together.

In a lot of ways, this campaign felt like a prequel to their story as a Hawker crew. We didn’t know how to approach “vice dealers” (that was part of the worldbuilding puzzle we had to solve), but by the end of this first (and probably only) season they’d established a product with a backstory and some very reliable customers. With these details, I can think of about four different directions the next season could go and all of them scream “Hawker Crew.”

How far in did the “crew identity” solidify for other folks? Does it always take a season or so, especially for campaigns played by people who have already internalized the rules?

Originally shared by Eli Kurtz

BLADES IN THE DICE DOJO

A Glimpse of Better Days

Part One: One War Ends

After Molerat (PK Sullivan), Redeye (Marshall Jacobson) and Clive (Scott Danielson) survived the Deathlands, the Rail Jacks make good on their word: they’ll meet with the Eye and Pestle to discuss ceasefire terms. The Red Sashes, now close allies with the Eye and Pestle, agree to host the meeting on neutral ground.

Agreeing to meet so soon is conspicuous to say the least, so Redeye tails the Rail Jacks on their way to the meeting. Thanks to Molerat’s ghost field lens, Redeye learns the Rail Jacks are in a desperate position: they want to unionize but the Eye and Pestle has unwittingly foiled them at every turn. Several Rail Jacks died when they lost the Quickbane shipment. They tried to buy an alternative from the Lampblacks but the Eye and Pestle brought the building down around them. Desperate, the Rail Jacks approached their rivals, the Gondoliers, only to pick up product laced with Spark. The Rail Jacks’ numbers have dwindled, their plans have been thwarted, and many of the survivors are now addicted to a second-rate substitute. A union is a far-off dream.

War is not the only woe facing the Eye and Pestle. News (Eric Simon) hears from Nyryx that a lot of her prostitute friends are Hollows since the rash of possessions. The unrefined Quickbane they’ve used to drive off the ghosts has cost many prostitutes their lives. And there are rumors that there are only more ghosts on the streets. Through a variety of disguises over several days, News canvases the entire city to connect all the dots they’ve spied over the past month. The revelation is dire: the Lampblack-Red Sashes war fills the streets with ghosts. So many prostitutes are Hollows. And worst of all, Roric’s ghost lies in wait to seize a Hollow, become a vampire, and exact his revenge on all of Crow’s Foot.

While Crow (Graham Ziolkowski), disguised as a Bluecoat, secures the streets around the Red Sash Sword Academy, Molerat whips up twice as much Improved Quickbane as they stole. Finally, they sit down in Mylera Klev’s meeting room with the Rail Jacks. News makes a flashy entrance wearing his Tangletown disguise, then outmaneuvers the Rail Jack Quartermaster with aplomb. He’s such a skilled debater that he angers the Quartermaster, and things might come to blows if not for an intimidating action from Crow (and, y’know, every one of the Red Sashes). The final terms are better than anyone hoped: the Eye and Pestle agrees to supply the Rail Jacks with Improved Quickbane at a reduced price, they’ll give the first shipment for free as a gesture of goodwill, and the Eye and Pestle can keep a stock for what is certain to be ghostly chaos in the coming days.

On their way out of the meeting room, Mlyera Klev stops the crew. “I’ve done you more favors than I can count,” she says. “It’s time to pay me back. The Lampblacks are moving on us any day now and our numbers are dwindling. We need extra muscle, and you’ll do in a pinch.” The Eye and Pestle has no choice but to agree. Over the next 24 hours, each scoundrel in the crew frantically preps for the ordeal ahead.

Part Two: Another War Begins

With almost no time to spare, the Eye and Pestle makes some frantic preparations for the coming storm. They’ve got to help the Red Sashes defeat the Lampblacks once and for all, but they’ve also got to save the people of Crow’s Foot from a looming ghostpocalypse. With a load of Quickbane blow darts and a cadre of Skovlander revolutionaries to shoot them, the crew sets up a fortified position within the Red Sash Sword Academy.

Things go well at the start. The crew advances into the neighborhood to set up a forward base crackling with electroplasmic energy. The plans are almost foiled by some Lampblack arsonists, but Crow and the Skovlanders make quick work of them. News slinks off to find Baszo Baz and settle their longtime grudge while Molerat and Redeye regroup back at the Sword Academy. In these first triumphant hours, they all realize that as much as one tenth of Crow’s Foot has been turned into ghosts. The numbers are daunting.

Molerat decides he’s going to retrofit a massive ghost EMP to the radio tower of the Sword Academy, but he needs parts to do it. Redeye hunts them down, but when he arrives he finds his rival, Casta, hell-bent on settling their score. Crow and the Skovlanders terrorize their way down the streets, fighting off super-powered Crow gangsters and telekinetic ghosts alike. If not for a vial of rage essence, our Tycherosi Cutter, Crow, might have fallen to the horde. But because of the rage that vial contains, News finds a fury-blinded friend wreaking havoc between him and his quarry. All the while, inhuman screams echo across the district from the top of Crow’s Nest tower. Roric is clawing his way into a mockery of life.

News sneaks up on his feral friend Crow and calms him down with a dose of Trance Powder. Disguised as a Lampblack, he walks right up to Baszo and reveals himself, only to bungle an assassination and get pinned down in a firefight with a squad of Lampblacks. He tries everything to get at Baszo, but eventually the stress overwhelms him and he flees into the night.

Crow rouses from his twice-drugged slumber and scales the battered Crow’s Nest tower in search of whatever evil lies at the top. Neither gangsters nor ghosts stand in the way of his armored Tycherosi might.

Redeye grabs the parts they need for the ghost EMP but Casta is hot on his tails. He’s been wrapped up with criminals and revolutionaries, and Casta wants the bounty on his head. Not even a well-placed string of traps halts her advance as Redeye flees through the streets. Eventually he strikes up a deal: let him deliver these parts and save the District, then he’ll turn himself in to her without a fight. Casta agrees with a cruel smile.

With the final parts, Molerat completes the EMP and climbs to the roof of the Sword Academy. Using Rail Jack electro-hooks they stole so many weeks ago, Molerat makes himself into the catalyst. Green lightning courses through the gear on his back as the EMP rips open a spirit well that reaches to the borders of Crow’s Foot. For a moment, everyone in the district sees a glimpse of days gone by: green fields, blue skys, and a strange burning light pouring down upon everything. But then the moment passes, the spirit well collapses, and drags every spirit in its reach back into the ghost field.

Every spirit except one. In the highest chamber of the Crow’s Nest, our Tycherosi Cutter is locked in combat with Roric’s super-powered ghost and the tortured, half-machine body of Lyssa that Roric seeks to inhabit. Crow is unstoppable, and Roric’s defenses falter just as the spirit well collapses. Crow vaults high and slashes down with such force that his Tycherosi greatsword cleaves through Roric’s spirit, Lyssa’s ruined body, and the floor beneath their feet. Only his incredible armor saves Crow from certain death. Only his armor left a pathway open toward the last enemy that shall be faced: Baszo Baz dies as the demon warrior’s hands. That’s two News owes to Crow now.

Part Three: In Proper Business

After that hellish night, Redeye goes to Ironhook Prison to serve out his time. Crow finds himself the de facto leader of the Crows, their numbers swelled to impressive size and then slashed in half by all the Hollows created in the aftermath of the ghost EMP. In addition to producing Improved Quickbane, Molerat begins work on an antidote for the Rail Jacks who are still addicted to the Gondoliers’ substitute goods. News, gone soft by his disgrace on that fateful night, takes a while to reckon with the notion that he can’t do it all. Maybe finding new clients for the Eye and Pestle is enough for now.

With their leader dead, the Lampblacks can’t hope to withstand the might of the Red Sashes. The gang disbands, and for many of them it is a painful echo of the day they lost their old jobs to the electrick lightposts. Only the lucky, the powerful, or the rich get a happy ending in Doskvol.

The Red Sashes and the Eye and Pestle continue a close partnership but the well is poisoned. As the new leader of the Crows, Crow the infamous Tycherosi Cutter can’t help but be a threat to Mylera Klev. They’re allies for now, but how can she be sure this violent swordsman won’t double cross her? It is a bridge destined to burn.

This is what awaits the Eye and Pestle as this endless night continues in this city of endless sorrow. They have a foothold for now, a glimpse of better days, but will they be ready when the next storm comes?